Atlantic, sometimes farther south. It often appears as the Fortunate Isle
or Islands, "Insulae Fortunatae" or "Beatae."

On some early maps (1306 to 1471) there is an inlet on the western coast
of Ireland called "Lacus Fortunatus," which is filled with Fortunate
Islands to the number of 358 (Humboldt, "Examen," II. p. 159), and in one
map of 1471 both these and the supposed St. Brandan's group appear in
different parts of the ocean under the same name. When the Canary Islands
were discovered, they were supposed to be identical with St. Brandan's,
but the latter was afterwards supposed to lie southeast of them. After the
discovery of the Azores various expeditions were sent to search for St.
Brandan's until about 1721. It was last reported as seen in 1759. A full
bibliography will be found in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History,"
I. p. 48, and also in Humboldt's "Examen," II. p. 163, and early maps
containing St. Brandan's will be found in Winsor (I. pp. 54, 58). The
first of these is Pizigani's (1387), containing "Ysolae dictae
Fortunatae," and the other that of Ortelius (1587), containing "S.
Brandain."


XIII. HY-BRASAIL

"The people of Aran, with characteristic enthusiasm, fancy, that at
certain periods, they see Hy-Brasail, elevated far to the west in their
watery horizon. This has been the universal tradition of the ancient
Irish, who supposed that a great part of Ireland had been swallowed by the
sea, and that the sunken part often rose and was seen hanging in the
horizon: such was the popular notion. The Hy-Brasail of the Irish is
evidently a part of the Atlantis of Plato; who, in his 'Timaeus,' says
that that island was totally swallowed up by a prodigious earthquake."